Archives for June 2018

I’ve been busy getting ready for a vacation. I’m now in St. Andrews by the Sea at The Algonquin Resort in New Brunswick, Canada. It’s a place I remember, by name, coming with my parents. At least, I think we stayed here. I can’t quite remember and nothing has sparked a memory. The Algonquin is one of those old world big imposing Victorian like structures. A 500 room cottage in the woods, with a golf course that would make any duffer drool. I’m sitting on a wide high ceiling porch overlooking the giant turn circle, sipping coffee and waiting for my wife to join me and then we’ll go to the buffet breakfast, served until eleven. We only have two nights here. I should have booked a week. You need that long to get accustomed to the pace.

Meanwhile, the news is a mixed bag, mostly dreadful. The only bright light is the young woman who won her primary challenge in New York. How did she do it? By realizing that the Democratic database was too clumsy and developing her own canvasing system that concentrated on getting new people registered to vote. Hopefully, others will copy her example. The database that I have used to canvas in the past five or six elections is terrible. It’s out of date and seems to waste my efforts. This time I told our candidate I’d do a fund raiser. I saw no point in wandering around a neighborhood doing door hangers in a helter-skelter fashion.

A Supreme Court Justice is retiring, which many lament saying he was the swing vote. What isn’t being talked about is the ties of his children with the Trump children and other right wing kids. But this is all part of the far right Koch brothers’ grand plan. The justices that Trump is looking at are all coming hand picked from The Federalist Society, a right wing very conservative group whose heroes are Ted Cruz and Anthony Scalia. They have in their sights the overturning of Roe vs Wade, and that’s just the beginning. Their true aim is to enslave the general population so that they can have cheap labor. This sounds harsh I know, but that’s the plan. They dress it up in fancy phrases, like freedom and liberty, but it is anything but that. They wish to enrich themselves at the expense of the rest of us – period. They believe they are entitled to it.

Part of this plan involves putting our government in so much debt that they will say we have to slash programs that help not only the poor, but the middle class: social security, medicare, medicaid, are all targets.

As one commentator said about Trump and his spending, he promised to distance himself from Obama’s debt, which he did. Obama had a debt of $400M. Remember Obama came in facing the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Trump inherited a relatively stable economy and has already run up a debt exceeding one trillion dollars. This gives people like Paul Ryan cover to say, “Oh gosh, we’ve got to cut social security, etc. etc. etc.”

In foreign policy, Trump has none. His idea of foreign policy is a photo op. He now is going to meet with Putin. For what reason? For a picture. This will help Putin show he’s a world leader. As one former diplomat said you have to realize that Putin orders people poisoned, beaten, and jailed. His goal is to disrupt democracies around the world. He is propping up a brutal dictatorship in Syria. He meddled in our election. He got Trump elected and he now manipulates him like a little puppet.

The King of Jordan, a former eye doctor who had the kingship thrust upon him, has learned how to handle Trump. Tell him he’s humble, praise him, give him gifts and praise. It’s all personal. Enrich Trump and he’ll do whatever you want. Sad but true.

Putin knows this. If you want to see a spy master work an asset, watch what Putin gets Trump to do. He already got Trump to cancel the annual war exercises with South Korea. What will he suggest at their meeting this time?

Our allies have to gird themselves for another round of insults, reverses, and god knows.

We are in tough times. The only light I see is a 28 year old woman who has beaten a political machine. She espouses universal health care, getting rid of I.C.E. She’s for abortion rights and other progressive initiatives.

Many folks are talking now about how Obama was too nice with the Republicans. I don’t think whomever comes to power next, will make that mistake. The Republicans have shown that they will lie, cheat, and bend the rules and traditions to the point of breaking to get their way. So what if it’s out of step with the majority of the country? They don’t represent the country. The represent the 1% or really the 1/10 of 1%.

Several years ago, before Trump, there was a survey of folks. They were asked if they were in the one percent. Twenty percent thought they were and 19% thought they would be one day. That’s 39% that believe they are in or will be in the 1%. That’s about the number Trump gets in support.

Some people still believe that Trump “must know something (they don’t)” or that “he’s a businessman (so he must have a good reason for doing it, that they don’t understand.)” I don’t know if it is possible to reach those folks. Trump has proven, and I have tried to document that he knows nothing. He is not a businessman. He is a con man, who has run a string of businesses that have enriched himself and his family, but no one else. Mark Cuban pointed out that the way you tell a really successful businessman is by how many other people he made rich. In Trump’s case there are none, only his family, and he did it by screwing others, by not paying his bills, by cheating and lying. Will the debt come due? It’s hard to say.

Well well well, the stock market started to collapse yesterday. Why? Seems the president has started a trade war and like the restauranteurs and regular folks who are sick of these folks and letting them know it, so are the other countries and their leaders who have been our allies and trading partners.

Wal-Mart Tee shirt “Stay Classy America”

The most dangerous thing the president did recently would have to have been insulting Angela Merkel. Throwing two Starburst candies on the table in front of her and the rest of the G-7 leaders and then saying, “Don’t say I never gave you anything Angela.” Ha ha. Funny right? Shows what a big man he is. Remember when the right wingers were going crazy over Obama saying, “he led from behind.”? Merkel is a master at it. The last guy the messed with her found himself on the outside looking in and he never even knew what happened.

So where is Donald and his good brain getting advice? Why from Vladimir Putin, where else? Yes, the idea to kill the Korean War games that we do every year with South Korean troops in August. It was Putin who suggested it. This was opposed by our allies, our generals, our State Department, in short everyone on our side.

Anyone who doesn’t think that Trump is a treasonous puppet hasn’t been paying attention.

Kudos to the King of Jordan! He knows how to play our president! He called Trump humble, and Donnie likey. Jordan is in a tough spot. They have real refugees from the war in Syria that is kept alive by Vladimir Putin. You know, Trump’s bud, or should I say boss?

Meanwhile, The Supreme Court held up Trump’s travel ban 5-4. Look for more of the same with Gorsuch on the bench. Many on the right are boo-hooing the antagonism the people in the White House are getting in public. To quote Cory Lewendowski, “wonk-wonk wonk wonk wonk.” Maxine Waters made a plea that we should keep up the pressure on those officials by doing what we are doing to them in public. Some have said, “Oh no, Maxine is wrong. We should play nice.” F*ck That. Go Maxine. Mr. Trump called her “Low IQ.” You wanna play nice against that? F*ck That.

To show that Trump should get the Nobel Peace Prize and as a sign of his great negotiating ability there are reports that the anti-American signs are being taken down in North Korea. Great. I hope this is a sign that relations are improving. However, as far as I know North Korea still had the same number of nukes and missiles as before and there are reports of it expanding its nuclear research facility.

Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater, and brother to Betsy DeVos and heir to the Amway multi-level marketing soap scam empire is apparently ready to cut a deal with team Muller. See, when you get right down to it, these tough guys are cowards. Erik “shoot ‘em in the ass” Prince is trying to cut a deal. Wonder why? I mean (we are in step two of the five step right wing Trump excuse-a-thon). Step one was “Well yes I was in the Seychelles, and yes I did bump into a Russian. Mere coincidence. I forgot about it, because it was so insignificant and short lived.” We are either in step two or three: “Now, that my memory has been refreshed, I do remember that the main reason I was in the Seychelles was to meet a Russian.” Step three would then be: “Now that you’ve put the evidence in front of me that I was representing the Trump campaign and trying to set up a back channel to Putin, I am willing to consider a plea deal.”

Meanwhile, Harley Davidson is saying it is going to move a significant part of its operation out of the U.S. in response to president Trump’s trade war stuff.

In the middle of the week my right wing friends were posting stuff trying to say, “Others did it too.”
By the end of the week there was a responding wave of posts comparing the interment camps that Trump has set up to what we did to Japanese American citizens during WWII or to the Nazi concentration camps. Also, there was evidence being shown that the separation of immigrant parents from their children was in the works from the early days of this administration.
Sarah Sanders was asked to leave a restaurant in Virginia. She posted this on her official government twitter account, an ethics violation, which I’m sure will be investigated to the hilt. It turns out the same thing happened to Joe Biden when he was VP. The difference? He didn’t make a big deal about it.
Why was Sanders asked to leave the restaurant? Turns out the staff, many of them the kinds of people she and the president have been attacking didn’t want to serve her. The owner asked the staff, in the back room. They took a vote. The owner then went and pulled Sanders aside and told her. In other words, the owner did not try to embarrass Sanders. She tried to do it in a respectful manner. I mean, if you can refuse to make a wedding cake for a gay couple, certainly a gay waiter or waitress has the right not to serve you, or as one person said maybe they’ll just spit in your food.
I’m afraid it has come to this kind of behavior. Why? Decent folks are tired of being taken advantage of by bullies, racists, and crooks. I have to laugh when I think about Rush Limbaugh saying his favorite cities in the world are London, San Francisco, and New York. None of them bastions of right wing idealism.
60 Minutes ran a piece last night on Jerry Brown, Governor of California. He turned the state around after Republican ineptness. It is now the fifth largest economy in the world. He’s moving the state away from fossil fuels and is highly critical of Trump and Trump’s lack of knowledge, caring, and ability.
Also, saw a piece on Watergate. It was Robert Redford talking about making the movie, “All the President’s Men.” I hadn’t realized that Nixon was behind the Watergate break-in from the start. That it was all paid for with money contributed to the Republican re-election campaign. Also, the Redford contacted Woodward and Bernstein early on, after they had written their third article, he told them he wanted to make a movie about them. Redford had a hard time selling the idea because folks thought it would be boring, because they knew how it ended. It made me think of “Titanic” and a song our community group did about that movie. (The thought of older men sitting through two hours of a movie without a bathroom break. Especially, when they knew how it was going to end…”Oh no, here comes the water!” was the punch line to the song.)
Nixon the special said was one of the most intelligent men to ever be in the White House. Also, one of the most flawed – flawed in the classic Shakespearean Jungian Freudian sense. Nixon went from that to a King Lear kind of person. Why did he do what he did? Why was he so unsure of himself that he ordered the break in? What tripped off Woodward and Bernstein that they were onto something big was the fact that the White House called it a third rate burglary. It was anything but third rate, according to the two reporters. The only thing third rate was the fact that they got caught. Nixon also had a taping system set up in the White House. He knew about such systems from somewhere before.

In other related stuff, Ann Coulter said that the kids at the border were being given scripts to read and were in fact child actors. She said that wasn’t her opinion, but that of an article in The New Yorker. At first, no on knew what she was talking about. About a month ago, the New Yorker ran an article that said kids were being coached what to say to authorities to be granted asylum. The author responded to Coulter with a comment that either she was illiterate or stupid, but regardless it was obvious she hadn’t read his piece.

Regular folks are tired or the lies, and the bullying and they are fighting back. Not in as civil a way as they have before because that hasn’t worked. I’ve been pointing out the idiocy of this president and his band of thugs, cretins, provocateurs, racists, neo-Nazis, incompetents, cheaters, fore-flushers, fools, knaves, hangers-on, since the beginning of his administration. Others are joining in and acting. They are resisting, speaking out, and I hope to god getting people registered to vote.

Then there is this joke making the rounds:

“Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.”
The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, “You’re in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above ground elevation of 2,346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude.
She rolled her eyes and said, “You must be an Obama Democrat.
“I am,” replied the man. “How did you know?”

“Well,” answered the balloonist, “everything you told me is technically correct. But I have no idea what to do with your information, and I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help to me.”

The man smiled and responded, “You must be a Republican.”

“I am,” replied the balloonist. “How did you know?”

“Well,” said the man, “you don’t know where you are — or where you are going. You’ve risen to where you are , due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. You’re in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but somehow, now it’s my fault.”

I’ve been listening to The Sgt. Pepper’s new CD. It is a remastered version for stereo. The Beatles spent a lot of time on the mono version. They had little to do with original stereo version. Giles Martin, son of George, took his dad’s original tapes and remastered them. The CD is wonderful. It makes me want to say, “Ah, a simpler time.”

But you know what? Haven’t people been saying that forever? Isn’t it really that one grows up and learns more? And that learning can be confining, because one learns more reasons why not. Language can be learned by children quite easily up to age ten, then it gets hard. Why? Their brains are wired to think a certain way.

I remember someone I knew used to say one of the earliest writing was, “Children no longer listen to their parents and everyone wants to write a book.”

I’ve read some new liner notes for the CD. The name Sgt. Peppers came from Paul hearing one of their roadie crew asking for the salt and pepper as Sgt. Peppers. This got Paul to thinking about a fictitious band and the players in it to be the Beatles alter egos. He also did up some sketches of John, George, Ringo, and himself in military style band costumes. They got help with the album cover from local artists who saw this as a work of art, not a liner for an album. At the time album art typically cost one hundred pounds; Sgt. Peppers cost 3000, about the price of a house in England. Their record company agreed to cover the cost, if the album sold one million copies. At the time of the creating of the album, there was a real question as to whether it would do well. There were many things never done before on an album, including publishing the lyrics to the songs.

I had mentioned the other night how much I was enjoying the album and I was told by those younger than me that they didn’t really know the album; that it was “before their time.” I had been caught in a Beatles time warp before. It was when I was living in a community called Bannockburn, which had an annual spring show. We took existing songs and wrote new lyrics for them and put on a show for the community. It had been a tradition in the neighborhood since the mid 50s. All ages and generations were involved. The older set knew Gilbert and Sullivan. I had suggested a song to a Beatles tune and was told to let the kids do it because the G&S crowd didn’t know the Beatles. It turned out neither did the kids! We had to teach the kids the song. (Another year I had a rap song to Public Enemy and the kids didn’t know them either!) Years, later Al, one of the G&S crowd, thanked me for introducing him to the Beatles. The news was celebrating the 25th anniversary of Sgt. Peppers and he thanked me because he now knew what the news people were talking about.

I remember talking to my cousin Virginia about that time. She was of my grandfather’s generation and born in 1899 (although she lied and said 1900.) She would have been the age I am now in 1967 when Sgt. Peppers came out. I wonder what she thought? Would she have pined for a simpler time? I do remember talking to her about the revolution in China. It was in the 1980s when we were talking. I mentioned that the revolution was a long time ago (1948). She said, “It wasn’t that long ago, 1924.” I had to go home and look up what she was talking about – The Boxer Rebellion. Mao’s revolution hadn’t even registered with her.

Time and perspective is a weird thing. I wonder what people will think when they look back at this time in American history?

We are in dangerous times. Our values are being called into question and challenged in a real way. The demagogues are not only spouting off their nonsense but trying to institute it as policy. They are running into a terrible thing (for them) – reality. We have seen where demagoguery can lead to. Combine that with racism, misogyny, nativism, isolationism, and a mixture of propaganda designed to foster lies and here we are. We’ve been here before, as a nation, as a world. Will we have to endure the pain that we had to endure before? Will 50 million people have to die? Will we sit quietly by and watch until it’s too late? I don’t think so, but it is up to each and everyone of us to speak up, to act, to vote.

Whew. Okay. Hum. Well, let’s see, where to begin? I think with the video of Trump sitting with his arms wrapped around his chest while sitting at a table while saying, “The Democrats have no ideas.”

Light at the End of the Tunnel

I was struck by the pose. It’s a protect your chest while your balls are exposed sort of position. Combine that with Trump always lies and what do you have? A scared, little man. Okay, let’s break it down.

Was he lying? Of course. His pitch on the immigration crisis he created is “it’s the Dems fault, if only they’d come to the table and negotiate.” It’s Trump’s fault. The Dems did come to the table. They’ve been to the table on this issue with Trump and had a deal. They’ve been to the table with the Republicans in Congress and had a deal. Both times the other side backed out.

Remember when Pelosi and Schumer went to the White House? They gave Trump his wall; and he gave them DACA? Yeah, then two days later Trump backed out. Remember when in 2013 the Senate passed an immigration bill? The bill went to the House for a vote. They had the votes to pass it and the Speaker refused to bring it to a vote? That would have been John Boehner.

This week moderate Republicans in the House had a bill done on immigration. The Freedom Caucus wanted some things changed. They changed them. Then they wanted more stuff changed. This went on several times until the moderates said no. Now the Freedom Caucus can wail about whatever, but the point is they negotiated in bad faith. They kept “moving the goalposts.” Hum, sound familiar? It should. It’s the same thing the Republicans did to Obama on health care. Barrack took an idea from the very conservative Heritage Foundation. An idea that had been passed in Massachusetts by their Republican governor Mitt Romney and Obama ran with it. The Republicans kept demanding changes, kept “moving the goal posts.” Obama kept agreeing. When it came time for a vote, not a single Republican voted for it. And what are their biggest complaints about Obamacare? Why the very things they asked him to put in the bill!

No, the bad faith is with Trump and with the Republicans. They have only themselves to blame.

Then we get to the “it’s not a policy just because we call it a policy. It’s not a policy. It’s something else.” Why? Well, if it is in fact a policy then it is illegal because they didn’t do the proper things to make it a policy. I think they would have needed Senate approval for it to be a policy. What they did was to have Jeff Sessions write a memo in April laying out this policy. They also removed the regulations allowing for immigrants to have lawyers. They had HHS start getting tents ready. This was a conscious planned decision. It’s is theirs and Trump’s. No one else’s.

So where are we in all this? Well, I know you’re going to find this hard to believe but there is chaos. However, the guy in charge of HHS has it all under control. Don’t worry. He’s not worried. He went to his 30th college reunion this past weekend. He said that the parents are in constant contact with their kids. Okay? No problem. This is akin to Albexander Kerensky issuing orders from the Kremlin in the middle of the Russian Revolution and no one was carrying them out.

Meanwhile the GoFundMe set to raise $1500 for bail money for the immigrants has now raised over $17,000,000.00. Folks are upset and trying to figure out how to help. Various airlines have refused to take immigrant children on their planes. There is ample evidence that they have been lied to. There is also a CIA contractor that is making millions flying these kids around.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post has sent out a call for anybody who might know where the government is hiding these kids to speak up and let them know so they can add it to the growing map of locations around the country. In New York City the Mayor was stunned to learn that the Federal authorities had secretly stashed kids in his city. He learned it on the news when a reporter managed to get out at one o’clock in the morning to video kids being moved.

What are the effects of young children being separated from their parents? According to a doctor who has been working with children on the border for years (which btw has nothing to do with the effects. The effects are the same on any child separated from their parents.), a child when separated from their parents becomes afraid. Their body is awash in chemicals that fear causes. This can effect the development of the brain, the organs of the body, in short their whole physical and psychological being. This can happen in a very short period of time 48-72 hours. The longer it goes on, the worse it becomes. Children will become withdrawn, clingy, have problems eating or speaking. They regress and may not ever fully recover.

This has no effect on people in the administration: current or former. Corey Lewendowski’s comment was “Wah, wah, wah.” However, when Peter Fonda having emerged for the first time in two decades said he’d like to see Baron Trump ripped from Melania’s arms and thrown into a cage of pedophiles that was a crisis!

Speaking of Melania, she went to the border, and toured a small facility. She was wearing a $49 overcoat. Who knew she had such a cheap coat. Maybe, she was trying to show she was with the people. That was blown when it was revealed that the back had emblazoned on it in big white letters, “I REALLY DON’T CARE. DO YOU?”

So was she trying to be super cool or super callous? Discuss. Maybe, like her husband, super clueless.

btw We are still waiting on that promised press conference about Melania’s working illegally when she first came to this country. And about her parents that are living here on a visa that says they are super important in contributing to this country?

Insiders in Washington say that there are no meetings or talks to discuss and plan for how to fix the problem they created. Thee administration has denied it. They’ve said it’s under control. They’ve said it isn’t a policy; that it is a policy. That it’s Congress’ fault and they should fix it. That the president can’t do anything about it, like sign an executive order, then he signs one, and says problem solved. They’ve blamed the Dems. Yet the Dems have agreed, multiple times. Now they say if only the Dems will come back to the table put their balls on the table and let us smash them then and only then will they not do anything. No wait, they won’t do anything period.

The goal of this administration is to limit immigration as much as possible. The reason people are coming here from countries in South and Central America is that they are being threatened in their own countries. This administration has no policy for dealing with that. Instead they want to wage a campaign to see if they can be crueler than the drug gangs that have threatened the people who have fled their country.

Hey, I’ve got it. Single out a few people for execution. That tends to send a message pretty quick. Let’s start with Stephen Miller and Corey Lewendowski.